From the Archives - Part 4, 1982-83

Hope you aren't finding this too boring. Bad news if you are, as it now transpires that there are still several more articles' worth of material in folder number 2! I'm actually finding it all great fun, which probably says quite a lot about me. None of it particularly favourable!


March 1982 - KCC are fighting for the Division 1 and 2 titles, and the town is agog with excitement!

Kenilworth Weekly News, March 12, 1982 - before it went tabloid!

You may be interested to know that this was a week when you could have bought a 4 bedroomed house in Windy Arbour for £59,950, or in Malthouse Lane for £49,500!!

Results went our way and we won both Division 1 and Division 2, and also the KO Cup - truly a Golden Year for the club! So we will have two teams in Division 1 in the 1982-83 season. Top A team scorer had been Miles Dunn (a new one on me) with an unbeaten 6.5/9. Bernard had contributed 4/4, but missed many games while away at University.

1982 AGM - 11 people attend. The only ones I know are - surprise, surprise - Bruce, Bernard and Ed Goodwin. Chris is presumably at Coventry Police Station arranging bail for a valued client!? The meeting learns that the club made a profit on the year of 19 pence! Talk about running a balanced budget. Despite previous reports, the Club had not gone cash-only, but had actually replaced the bank account with a building society account (the Coventry) which showed a balance of £37. Affiliation costs to the BCF had gone up from 5p per player to 50p per player. Crikey - that's Venezuelan rates of inflation. Despite this, Bernard recommends no change to club subs or weekly board fees. Another clock was to be purchased. (That makes 5 by my count!) Then as now, the Club is at the centre of the Leamington League power nexus, with Bernard as League Treasurer and Bruce as Assistant Secretary. Whatever happened to that latter role? Should we have one??

1982-83 - The Leamington League Division 1 consists of Banbury A, Evesham, Stratford A, Kenilworth A, Kenilworth B, Leamington A and Leamington B. Division 2 consists of Alcester,  Barford, Stratford B, AP A, and Banbury B, and in Division 3 are AP B, AP C, Kenilworth C, Leamington C and Stratford C.

September 17th 1982 - Geoff Temple is unable to play in the first two Kenilworth B league matches of the season, and actually writes a letter to Bruce to tell him! Imagine that, a club member taking the trouble to inform a match captain about his availability. I predict this will never catch on.

September 23rd 1982 - Do you know what you were doing on this day in history? Probably not, but I can tell you that Bernard was available to play (if selected) for Kenilworth B against Kenilworth A! Maybe history is about to repeat itself in September 2019?

Nov 29 1982 - A match is held between the Leamington League and Worcestershire League at Alcester. We lose. (We also lose an inter-league match against Coventry.)

May 1983 - Kenilworth A have won Division 1 for the second successive year, with 19 pts from 12 games, two points ahead of Leamington A. Ed Top scores with a Pink-esque 11/12. The B team, for which Bernard scores 6.5/10, finish in a very respectable 5th, while Banbury A come last with just 5 points. Not a scenario that is likely to be repeated in 2019-20! Meanwhile our C team finish 2nd (of 5) in Division 3, losing out to Leamington C by 1 game point after both finish on 10/16. We had been forced to default one match due to transport problems, which cost us the title. Nevertheless, the LDCL subsequently promotes us to Div 2 anyway.

September 1st 1983 - Another very late Club AGM. 12 people attend including Bruce, Bernard, Ed Goodwin and …… a first ever mention of Roy Watson! Chris is sorry he can't attend. Shock news is given to the meeting - Bruce has mislaid the minutes from the previous year's AGM. (Luckily, they are subsequently found, as otherwise there would be a big blank space above in this report!) On an income of £138.91 we have made a surplus of £11.25 for the year, taking our positive balance to £48.66. Even so, the Treasurer is planning for a rainy day, and argues successfully for subs to rise to £2, plus 40p per night board fee, but with this to rise to 50p (students and juniors half price) from Jan 1 1984, because the church hall rent is going up again. Bernard is obviously viewed as slightly dodgy, as apparently for the first time ever the accounts have been independently reviewed. I don't like the sound of this, so let's not have any ideas about auditing the books while I'm looking after club finances!